Oleh-Oleh

The concept of pasalubong isn’t unique to Filipinos. It’s an Indonesian habit too and one can’t fail to notice that at Yogyakarta airport from their baggages and even as I queued at Dunkin Donuts to buy 2 pieces for my kid. Locals would order several dozens but instead of having it boxed by dozens, each doughnut was placed in paper bag, that’s about 36 tiny paper bags for the guy in front of me. Presumably those were for his work colleagues in Jakarta or maybe for his relatives and friends in Surabaya or Bali. Wherever his destination may be, he was leaving Yogyakarta with his oleh-oleh in the form of hand-carried 36 paper bags of Dunkin Donuts.

A place for last minute oleh-oleh shopping such as bakpia in Yogyakarta airport.

Oleh-oleh pertains to food/beverage only, that’s the difference between the term oleh-oleh and pasalubong.